Sigrid Nunez: The Friend, Riverhead Books (Penguin Random House US) paperback, 9780735219458,

(No German edition announced yet)

Just finished reading Sigrid Nunez: The Friend, the National Book Award Winner 2018, and what a very unusual book it is.  Her prose is exquisite, a very clear and direct style that really appealed to me.   One of the peculiarities of the narration is that some characters remain unnamed, like wife No. 1, wife No. 3, the friend who is most sympathetic about the situation etc.  This gives the novel an almost analytical, observing touch.

The narration is about an unnamed woman losing her best male friend and mentor to suicide. Finding herself absolutely grief stricken and taking in his unwanted sad dog, a Great Dane no less, she is not sure about her motive for this act particularly since her New York flat is tiny and her apartment house does not allow pets. What follows feels less like a story but more like stringing pearl after pearl into a necklace: a sequence of thoughts,  contemplations, memories, insights, meditations about life, on loss, friendship, love, loneliness,  death, grief, solitude, literature, art, writing, teaching, solitude, serendipity and the unexpected happiness of  sharing life with a dog.

The parts of the novel dealing with the dog are the most touching and intimate; I thought these the best.  Another masterful, playful section in the novel is when she switches directions for a while towards the end.  

Highly recommend this 200 page long very worthwhile, uplifting literary read.